How Wayne Bennett's small-ball revolution helped the Brisbane Broncos to the NRL grand final

After watching the 2014 season unfold, you could have understood if the Brisbane Broncos started to suffer from small-man syndrome. This was a year dominated by the power play of the Bulldogs, Roosters and eventual premiers South Sydney.

The Broncos, meanwhile, had fallen over the line into the finals and exited a week later, with many supporters urging them to bulk up or fall further behind the competition's elite teams.

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Wayne Bennett had other ideas. He didn't take long to realise the various strengths and weaknesses of his squad, as well as assess the trends of the coming campaign and how he could maximise what he had at his disposal.

Faster ruck rules could have, in one way, advantaged teams with huge, rumbling forwards who can bend the line and put rivals on their back heels.

But they could also bolster teams with more spritely defence, able to get to their feet faster and reset the line, as well as outfits with forwards capable of passing interchanges and more dynamic carries across the 80 minutes.

It's exactly that scenario that unfolded for the Broncos, who have not only out-played but out-thought finals opponents who came to the battle with army tanks, only to be outflanked and ambushed by Brisbane's mobile platoon.

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They have played other sides to a standstill and Bennett's bullish suggestion ahead of his side's easy win over the Roosters should have not been taken quite so lightly. If his side were in the scrap with 15 minutes to go, he said, he knew they could run it out like a champion stayer.

The idea was solid yet Bennett still needed the players to carry out his mission. His recruitment of Adam Blair turned out to be a masterstroke, while he needed back-rowers like Matt Gillett to be able to chop down big men and produce each and every week.

"He's challenged all of us. He's been saying the right things to get the boys up for games. He knows the right thing to say to each player and it's showing," Gillett said.

"He wants your best every week, which is very hard to do in this competition. If you have a bad game and a good game, the in-between has to be not too far off. A lot of the boys here have been playing a lot of their best football for large parts of the year."

The quicker style of play has suited Gillett, even if he admits it takes a physical toll, especially earlier in the year. Now the Broncos enter the pointy end of their season rock-hard fit, which has been a strength in the final minutes of tight tussles.

"It does take a lot out of you. The staff here have been getting us right but we have played a lot of fast football. Players like Ben Hunt and Anthony Milford have been getting a bit of a reward from that," Gillett said.

Part of Brisbane's differing approach, Gillett said, was simply making the best with what they had in terms of pure muscle. Players like Sam Thaiday and Corey Parker play above their weight, while Blair has returned to the kind of form that made him one of the better front-rowers in the game.

"We don't have the biggest pack in the comp, no doubt about that. The Roosters are massive, Souths are massive ... even the Cowboys are massive. We've got pretty smart boys up front with Sam and Adam Blair and Corey Parker as well, they do a lot of pieces of ball work that helps," Gillett said.

"We've worked with what we've got, I suppose, and someone like Adam Blair has really come into his own. He's been strong for us at the back end of the year and hopefully on Sunday he can do it again."

Gillett said another advantage for Brisbane now paying off has been Bennett's clever rotation of players and the resting of his Origin representatives at various stages of the season. The impact hasn't just been physical.

"Wayne has done a very good job with that, mentally as well," Gillett said. "The boys have been getting some breaks here and there, a few of the senior players have been rested. We've been very smart with that sort of thing and that has paid off at this time of the year."